Dhokla (Steamed Chickpea Sponge)

Name: Dhokla (Steamed Chickpea Sponge)
Total time: 5 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Gujarati
Ingredients: 150 g Rice; 150 g Chana dal (split chickpeas); 1 tbsp Ginger; 2 Green chillies; 1 tsp Fruit salt (eno) or baking soda; 1 tbsp Lemon juice; 0.25 tsp Turmeric; 1.5 tsp Mustard seeds; 1 tsp Sesame seeds; 12 Curry leaves; 3 Green chillies, slit, for the dressing; 2 tbsp Sugar; 2 tbsp Neutral oil; Fresh coriander and grated coconut; Salt

Gujarat's steamed savoury sponge: a fermented chickpea batter puffed soft in a steamer, cut into squares and doused in a sweet-sour mustard-seed dressing.

Pinagmulan

Recipe ni Gujarati home kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · Western Indian (Gujarati) household cooking

Traditional dish — no single author — A Gujarati dish with no single author. The reference gives the method followed here: rice and split chickpeas soaked overnight, ground, fermented at least four hours, steamed about fifteen minutes, cut into pieces and seasoned with a tempering of mustard or cumin seeds, green chillies and curry leaves, garnished with coriander and grated coconut. The same page dates a precursor called dukkia to a Jain text of 1066 CE and the first known use of the word 'dhokla' to the Gujarati Varanaka Samuchaya of 1520 CE. Steps are our own writing.

Karagdagang impormasyon sa Wikipedia ↗

Panoorin habang niluluto

Home Cook Diary | Easy Recipes & Cooking Tips !

⏱ 300 min🍽 6 na serving🔥 180 kcal🇮🇳 India🌶️

VeganVegetarianWalang glutenWalang gatas

Mga hakbang

Rinse the rice and chana dal, cover with water and soak 5–6 hours. Drain and grind with the ginger, chillies and just enough water to make a thick, smooth batter.
Cover and leave in a warm place for at least 4 hours, until the batter is visibly bubbly and smells lightly sour.
Stir in the salt, turmeric and lemon juice. Grease a shallow round tin and get your steamer up to a full, steady steam.
Now add the fruit salt, stir 5 seconds as it froths, pour straight into the tin and get it into the steamer immediately.
💡 You have about fifteen seconds. The fizz is the entire rise — if the steamer is not already hot and waiting, the bubbles collapse and you steam a flat rubber slab.
Steam 15–18 minutes over high heat, then test with a skewer. It should come out clean and the sponge should spring back when pressed.
💡 Wrap the steamer lid in a cloth. Condensation dripping onto the surface leaves wet dents in the sponge.
Let it cool 10 minutes before cutting into squares — hot dhokla tears under the knife.
For the dressing, heat the oil, pop the mustard seeds, then add the sesame seeds, curry leaves and slit chillies. Pour in 150 ml water with the sugar and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil.
Spoon the hot dressing evenly over the cut dhokla and leave it 15 minutes to drink it all in. Top with coriander and coconut.
💡 It looks like far too much liquid and it is not. The sponge absorbs all of it, and that is what makes dhokla moist rather than dry and dusty.

💡 Mga tip

The quick version made with packet gram flour and eno is a different, denser thing called instant khaman. Real fermented dhokla is lighter and gently sour.
Cold dhokla is completely normal — it is packed for train journeys and lunchboxes all over Gujarat.
Naturally vegan and gluten-free as written, which makes it a genuinely useful thing to know how to make.
If it comes out dense, the fault is almost always the gap between adding the eno and getting it steaming. Set everything up before you open the packet.